The semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) industry has experienced rapid growth. Technological advances in IC materials and design have produced generations of ICs where each generation has smaller and more complex circuits than the previous generation. However, these advances have increased the complexity of processing and manufacturing ICs and, for these advances to be realized, similar developments in IC processing and manufacturing are needed. In the course of integrated circuit evolution, functional density (i.e., the number of interconnected devices per chip area) has generally increased while geometry size (i.e., the smallest component (or line) that can be created using a fabrication process) has decreased. This process may be referred to as a scaling down process.
Various active or passive electronic components can be formed on an IC chip. For example, inductors, resistors, capacitors, transistors, etc, may be formed on an IC chip. A shielding structure may also be implemented on the IC chip to provide isolation for devices such as inductors to reduce the harmful effects of noise and interference, particularly at high frequencies. However, traditional shielding structures may still lead to unwanted parasitic capacitance, which can lower the quality factor of devices such as inductors and otherwise degrade their performance. In addition, the parasitic capacitance issue may become exacerbated as the scaling down process continues.
Therefore, while existing shielding structures on ICs have been generally adequate for their intended purposes, they have not been entirely satisfactory in every aspect.